If I were Bush, I’d thank Rather for helping to motivate lazy Republican voters last November.
The best thing the ABCCBSNBC can do for Republicans in the future is to keep putting bitter partisans on the air. A friendly, fair-minded replacement for Rather like Britt Hume (as some have suggested) would mollify the right and encourage them to stay home on election day. Better to have one rogue cable news station that gets Democrat’s colossal dander up, so that the right stays hungry for a long time.

Bob

A friendly, fair-minded replacement for Rather like Britt Hume
Hah-hah-hah! I know you’re not saying that with a straight face and I like the way you barely avoided saying “fair and balanced.”
Bob Schieffer, from whom Hume should be taking notes, is taking over temporarily and would be an excellent permanent replacement.
But they’ll probably fall prey to replacing Schieffer with a talking head as soon as possible.

I like Schieffer, too, Bob. He’s a “fair and balanced” guy on the sane side of the left, just as Britt Hume is a “fair and balanced” guy on the sane side of the right.
And there’s no reason for your snark, except maybe you missed my point, which was not “how to fix the news” or “what they oughtta do”, but what would affect the psychology of lazy right wingers. Correct me if I’m wrong, but if you are the opposition, shouldn’t you be at least a little bit curious about that? Why so incurious? Instead of just spitting venom because some key words involuntarily kicked up the old, petty obsessions?
As you say, “they’ll probably fall prey to replacing Schieffer with a talking head as soon as possible”; right, exactly. Moving Hume from Fox would be seen as a more significant change; it’s not that Schieffer isn’t a nice and fair guy himself, but a Hume move would amaze the right and anger the left, which I speculated could actually help the Democrats in the long run by lulling Republicans into a false sense of security by making them feel overconfident, even though the content of the news probably wouldn’t change much, and Hume wouldn’t have the “roundtable” for airing his own views, anymore.
Schieffer probably is only a temporary patch, as you say, a nice guy who’s already in the stable. There’s no reason to consider him as a particularly permanent replacement. Regardless, the point remains that the seat will continue to be held by a journalist with a liberal bent, whether it be moderate or less so.
Meanwhile, the left’s complaint about Hume… the reason he’s not “fair”… is because he has some opinions right of center and is *gasp* allowed to actually talk on television. Schieffer holds just as many views contrary to the other side of the spectrum as Hume, though, so I’m not really sure how the left figures there’s any validity to that complaint, apart from a childish “we’re always right, they’re always wrong” philosophy.
I’ve been hearing right wingers in media falling all over themselves with praise for Schieffer… stuff mostly along the lines of “he’s got a lot of liberal views, but he’s really fair, and a nice guy. You can debate him, have a good time, etc.”
So please can the venom. It’s getting monotonous. If it turned out Santa Claus was a Republican, you’d probably sneer at him, too. I mean, you wouldn’t even have the presence of mind to get your presents first, you’d just sneer at him without thinking and he’d be obligated to dump coal in your stocking.
And, of course, you would probably decide the solution to getting presents again is to sneer at Santa Claus twice as hard next year. And if you still didn’t get presents, you’d just keep sneering and sneering and…
Maybe you could get a Santa Claus documentary filmed by Michael Moore. That’d take care of that old Rethuglican creep! You still wouldn’t be getting any presents, not even any good midterm presents, but man you’d be stoked!

Bob

carsonfire, you make so many false assumptions about who I am and what I was saying in your thread that it’s hardly worth addressing.
And what’s *hilarious* is you accuse *me* of a knee-jerk response, then go on to assume I’m a fan of Michael Moore, and that I use juvenile language like “Rethuglicans” – and that just scratches the surface.
I’ll happily agree that Brit Hume is the most professional and fair of the clearly right-leaning journalists. Still, replacing one anchor with another just to make a political statement would be idiotic on part of CBS – whether they replace Rather with a conservative *or* a liberal.
That’s why Schieffer would be a good choice, because, although the far right may get all caught up in labeling him a liberal (and I’m sure he is one), he’s known as a *journalist.*
Having said all that, if it were a choice between Brit Hume and some pretty boy talking head, I’d taker Hume. But those aren’t the choices.
And, sure, I’ll admit to some snark in my tone for the very reason I describe above that politicizing the choice would be a mistake. I hope *anyone* interested in the media and a journalistic integrity would think the same. That’s not necessarily a reflection on Hume, though; it’s a statement on what I (idealistically or whatever you wanna come back with) should motivate decision-making at all levels of the media.

Bob

P.S. carsonfire, as for your nonsensical Santa metaphor, there are plenty of Republicans I admire. Just a few examples: John McCain (who I’d vote for President before, say Lieberman), Teddy Roosevelt (OK, so he’s long dead), Arlen Specter, Colin Powell (if somewhat tarnished), Andrew Sullivan, P. J. O’Rourke (OK, so he’s libertarian), Christopher Hitchens (a little joke) and many friends and family.
Just to be frank: It’s really pretty lame that you would accuse me of being a kneejerk over a couple of sentences without any context, then go on this loooooong kneejerk diatribe yourself.

“Hah-hah-hah! I know you’re not saying that with a straight face and I like the way you barely avoided saying “fair and balanced.””
Yeah, Carson, how could you read knee-jerk hackery like that and assume that Bob was a knee-jerk hack? ;)
I do like the way he barely avoided saying “FAUX NEWS” though.